Issue 286: Red Flag

“The aim of Red Flag Alaska from the squadron level was to deploy to an international, US led collation exercise scenario in large force employment so we could integrate and reach the higher levels of our training, in that scenario in multirole operations,” 3SQN CO WGCDR Terry van Haren explained to Australian Aviation.

“It’s a real step up for the squadron. A Red Flag is an investment in each and every guy and girl in the squadron. For the aircrew it is that unique experience that they have had that they can step from into real operations. It makes them understand the real world environment and the bigger system that is out there to support fighter operations. It is also the time they have probably gone into the hardest environment that they can go into, with the most active threats and the most things that can ruin their day and can kill them. I wouldn’t want to see that threat complexity in a real operation, if I did it would be ‘first day of the war’ type stuff where the potential of losing aircraft would be high. But having the Red Flag experience behind you there you have learnt the tricks of the trade to increase your survivability and your success in a combat type environment.”

The Red Flag Alaska series is run by the USAF’s Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) – it was formerly known as Cope Thunder, which was first run out of Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines – and operates from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, and Eielson Air Force base, near Fairbanks, deep in the Alaskan interior. The exercise series, which runs three or four times a year, can take advantage of the 180,000 sq kilometre Joint Alaska Pacific Range Complex, operated by Eielson’s 353rd Combat Training Squadron, taking in sparsely populated, mountainous terrain.
As with the Red Flag exercise series run from Nellis Air Force base outside of Las Vegas in Nevada, the aim of Red Flag Alaska is to provide pilots with exposure to high fidelity air combat training in a simulated high threat environment over a two week period.

“The difference between Red Flag Alaska and Nevada is mainly the environment aspect. Red Flag Alaska has the larger pieces of airspace, also the terrain is obviously quite different with the undulating mountains up to the high ranges. It also is more mountainous and more target varieties within its range areas and sprinkle into that the various threat systems that are basically in the range areas there and they are able to use.”

Aside from 3SQN, other international participation in Red Flag Alaska 11-2 included Japan Air Self Defence Force F-15Js, C-130s, an E-767 and two KC-767 tankers, and Republic of Singapore Force Air Force F-15SGs from Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, all taking advantage of the opportunity to exercise with various PACAF units. And as well as 3SQN, which was based at Eielson, a single RAAF C-130J from 37SQN took part in Red Flag Alaska, operating from Elmendorf (the first time a RAAF C-130J had taken part in a Red Flag).

“Red Flag gives you the background in working with partner nations US Forces in particular,” said WGCDR van Haren. “You get a healthy understanding to the capabilities or limitations of the platforms that you are working with and start to build relationships with the people as well and you tune into each other, so that is really important.”

3SQN arrived at Eielson AFB on July 4, allowing for a period of familiarisation training and workup before the exercise proper got underway on July 11.

Over the course of the two week exercise 3SQN pilots could expect to fly five or six missions, typically on alternating days, with one of the key aspects of a Red Flag exercise being the mission planning element, with participants spending the day prior to their mission involved in a detailed planning and briefing process.

“One of the things that is heavily emphasised in the methodology of a Red Flag is the planning cycle, trying to get absolutely the most out of it, so you’re planning the mission as a combine so for the mission planning you have big huddles of all the various leads and the commanders of the packages working together and cascading down into the formations for formation planning. Trying to ensure that the best plans are put there so there is a lot of ‘what ifs’ put into the plan so people understand all the different scenarios in terms of weather degrading and also replanning for targets and fallouts from the force and stuff like that.”

Interestingly, WGCDR van Haren, who was executive officer of 75SQN when it deployed to the Middle East in 2003 for combat operations over Iraq during Operation Falconer, noted that the mission planning aspect was one notable difference between Red Flag and actual combat operations.

“In real operations you would typically have a lot less time to plan, in fact the task may be delivered to the unit overnight and someone else actually plans the mission, ooks up your team your support assets, if you have SEAD (suppression of enemy air defences), who is going to control you, what air-to-air protection you are going to have if you are doing a strike type mission, and that is basically given to you so you are not heavily involved in the mission planning, typically, in a real operation. Red Flag gives you the understanding of how that has been generated and with that experience the opportunity of getting in and flying the mission with limited planning and that full understanding of the capabilities and limitations of each of the other systems. That’s the key to success.

“When you are talking about going into high threat areas and you are relying on SEAD support, you are relying on information coming into the cockpit at the appropriate time to make the appropriate decisions, you need to understand the capabilities and limitations of where that has come from. So there is a lot more planning in Red Flag compared to real operations, but in terms of execution Red Flag gives you the background and the understanding of the full systems such that it can execute to a higher level.”

Red Flag missions step up through four levels of complexity as the exercise progresses, with increasing levels of mission and electronic warfare complexity. The ground threat, with the 353rd Combat Training Squadron operating systems that emulate Russian SAM systems up to and including the SA-10 and SA-15 is scalable, while the ‘Red Air’ air threat is provided by the Eieslon based 18th Aggressor Squadron, which operates F-16s painted in Soviet era camouflage schemes emulating MiG and Sukhoi series fighters.

“Typically Red Flag is an offensive counter air (OCA), live fire (LFE) type exercise,” said WGCDR van Haren. “We were practising predominately the OCA role, interdiction strike on the various target areas that they have up there, and integrated with that was all support of SEAD, all the C2 type aspects. They also had a close air support (CAS) window going on for each of those waves so as the LFE would wind down the CAS window would open up operating on the two ranges there.

“But a little bit unusual for a Red Flag I suppose was two days of defence counter air (DCA) work where the mission was to protect vital areas and you were attacked basically by the aggressors and they were supplemented by all the strike aircraft that could swing roll to defensive counter air, like the F-16s the A-10s. That was quite different for a Red Flag, and there was certainly some good lessons out of those missions because it’s something that is not routinely practised by many western air forces at the moment.

“There was also the personal recovery type exercises going on there

”So it was a constant changing exercise in terms of the various roles that were practiced. We pretty much played in all of those and that was really our aim to be true flex, multirole type guys, so we did a fair amount of OCA and DCA, a fair amount of interdiction striking with various weapons, and we also had at least a couple of aeroplanes go out each way for some close air support at the end of the wave there.”

Apart from the intensity and complexity of the missions flown, Alaska’s terrain and weather provided further training value.

“The beauty of Red Flag Alaska is the terrain its fantastic, flying through those big valleys and using terrain as part of your plan if you like to succeed and survive,” the 3SQN CO noted.
Another unusual aspect was the near 24 hours of sunlight, given the exercise was held in the middle of summer and Alaska’s proximity to the North Pole. And being summer meant the weather was generally temperate, although “there was quiet a bit of cloud moving through the are every day.”

Red Flag Alaska was a full squadron deployment by 3SQN, with all its pilots (augmented by a small number of pilots from other classic Hornet squadrons) and most of its maintenance personnel deploying, as well as some intel and mission planning support personnel from 81WG. Depending on their experience levels the unit’s pilots had various different goals for Red Flag Alaska, from category upgrades to the unit’s FCIs and flight leaders leading missions involving 30 and 40 aircraft.

For one of the unit’s most junior pilots, FLGOFF Duncan ‘Herbs’ Herbert who posted into 3SQN in January after completing his Hornet ‘opcon’ (operational conversion course with 2OCU), Red Flag Alaska was about being exposed to gaining experience of complex air threat environments.

“It was far and away a lot more complex than what I had done (before), but I think that the amount that my skills increased as a fighter guy was phenomenal, it was definitely worthwhile,” FLGOFF Herbert related. “Operating in foreign airspace with all these other foreign guys, seeing how they operate, their strengths, and all that sort of stuff, and then bringing our strengths to the table and seeing how all these different platforms interact with each other, it was really good.”

As part of 3SQN’s lead-up preparations for Red Flag the unit deployed to RAAF Tindal in May-June for Exercise Arnhem Thunder, Air Combat Group’s annual ‘bomb camp’ that this year also involved 75SQN and 79SQN.

“It (Arnhem Thunder) probably didn’t prepare me very much for the degree of complexity in Alaska with the full surface-to-air threats, nice target areas and the aggressors who do it every day,” said FLGOFF Herbert. “Working as a big package when we were doing Arnhem Thunder we were working as maybe an eight ship with two separate four ships. At Red Flag we were working maybe 20 or 30 other blue air all trying to achieve the same aim with air superiority and destroying target areas and that sort of thing. So being part of the big package was interesting and everyone gets their own little role in the air and rather than trying to do it all yourself, which is what we often tend to practice here in Australia, going over there and doing your own little bit to win the war.”

One mission flown by FLGOFF Herbert was a self escort air strike. “We were essentially from a push point going down town to try and wipe out the air threat and deliver weapons – it was JDAMS on that day – and then fly back out with the air threat that had re-generated from airfields all across the place. It was quite challenging seeing a radar picture that was full pretty much, trying to fight your way in, take out your air-to-air cassette and put in your air-to-ground cassette and deliver the JDAM as an effective task, but it was practicing what for single seat multirole guys (is our) bread and butter, so it was good, really good.”

An aspect of Red Flag new to FLGOFF Herbert and other junior 3SQN pilots was flying against dedicated aggressor pilots.

“That was challenging. They provide good feedback to you in the debriefs as well as providing an extremely accurate air representation of what the enemy is likely to throw at you. That was quite challenging to see that for the first time full up as they trained to it, and it was great to hear their feedback in the debriefs about stuff that we might be doing wrong or doing well. Same as the guys on the surface who were pretending to shoot you with SAMS. Again in Australia we are very limited with that sort of thing but over there it was fantastic to see and they provided good feedback about how you were going.”

Another of the lessons reinforced by Red Flag was working with an incomplete intelligence picture of the likely air and ground threats a mission will face.

“You are assigned your own intel guy and he goes out and tries to collect as much info from the White Force – which is the neutral guys who will decide how much info you get – so he would normally find out a fair bit for you, but there were some things that he kept under his hat. For example, one day there was an airfield active that we didn’t know about and it wiped out a whole bunch of our blue guys.“

In summary, FLGOFF Herbert noted, “For a junior guy it was challenging, but it was something that you can only do in Alaska and Las Vegas and the improvement in my flying skills and SA is phenomenal.

“When we go out and practice certain things all the time we may practice some bombing attacks as a pair or air-to-air but putting it in a big perspective where you are linking it all up like that with the big picture scenario like they were providing over there was great.”

Turning Japanese

Red Flag Alaska 11-2 also provided 3SQN to build the RAAF’s relations with the Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) both during the exercise itself and transiting back through Japan on the way back to Australia.

Unfortunately, a series of 1v1 and 2v2 air combat integration training sorties between 3SQN Hornets and F-15Js of the JASDF’s 4th Wing planned for the week prior to Red Flag Alaska proper getting underway fell through as the JASDF temporarily grounded its F-15 fleet after a fatal crash, which meant the F-15Js arrived at Eielson a week later than planned. Still, a “familiarisation sortie” – in effect a public relations photo shoot – involving 3SQN Hornets and JASDF F-15Js the KC-767s was flown on July 14, the first time aircraft from the two air arms have flown together in a bilateral environment.

And during the course of Red Flag 3SQN pilots worked closely with the JASDF E-767, which controlled one of the two waves each day.

“The biggest challenge working with the Japanese AWACS was ‘tuning in’ [to each other],” noted WGCDR van Haren. “They are communicating in English but with the Japanese accent plus the translation that is going on within their aeroplane and [their] then tuning into our accents as well, that was a great challenge. So there were a lot of breaks in the communication there as one interprets the other. It’s a challenge and it’s something that took a while to get used to. They were also pushing a Link 16 picture as well which was a fairly robust picture there in the end I thought, but certainly in that sort of fight the C2 (command and control) comes into its own because once you take 30 or 40 jets across the line and the fight starts it ends up being stuff everywhere threats coming up and down, formations manoeuvring, which means you are really relying on from your SA (situational awareness) coming from C2.”

The JASDF E-767 “did a fantastic job”, observed WGCDR van Haren. “I was most impressed, their learning curve was very steep, but by the end of the exercise they were certainly performing as good as you would see an AWACS of that type. I was quite impressed how they picked the ball up there and learnt from all the lessons that were going during the exercise.”

And then the transit back to Australia provided 3SQN with the opportunity to stage through Misawa Air Base for a “cultural and dialogue” exchange, and to take advantage of a new agreement signed with Japan last year that allows JASDF bases and logistics to support transiting RAAF aircraft. Misawa, on the northern tip of the main Japanese island, Honshu is a joint USAF-JASDF base, with 3SQN arriving there on July 25 to visit the JASDF’s 3rd Air Wing, whose 3 and 8 Squadron constituent units operate the Mitsubishi F-2 (the Japanese development of the F-16).
“It was a good opportunity to look over their aeroplanes and look into their world, and we did the same, basically showed them over our planes, and had a lot of discussions about how we operate and what we do and our capabilities and limitations, so it was interesting in that regard.”

Even though the Misawa visit did not involve any flying missions, apart from the diplomatic benefits of building stronger ties with the JASDF, there was some training benefit as well, particular for 3SQN’s ground troops.

“Going back via Japan was a very interesting exercise in maintenance because we were hosted by the Japan Air Self Defence Force, and we parked the aeroplanes on their lines, we serviced the aeroplanes on their lines, we relied on their fuel systems, their oxy systems, their oils and hydraulic type replacement systems, their back end, now that was a challenge. That is something that we have never done before – some of the connectors didn’t work all that sort of stuff.”

Despite the language barrier, “They were very helpful and they made sure that everything we needed they got appropriately there, but there was certainly some learning there in that environment because it was new.”

It was more valuable experience from what was evidently a very valuable deployment.